Taiwan's badminton queen earns PhD Tai Tzu-ying earns doctorate from University of Taipei's Graduate Institute of Sports Training 6272 By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer 2022/06/14 12:32 Tai Tzu-ying in cap and gown. (University of Taipei photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's badminton queen Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) has become badminton scholar "Dr. Tai" by receiving her PhD. The University of Taipei held its graduation ceremony on Monday (June 13) and announced Tai received a PhD from its Graduate Institute of Sports Training at the age of 27. Tai has spent her entire academic career at the University of Taipei, having earned her bachelor's, master's, and now doctoral degree there. Although Tai often has to travel overseas to compete in badminton tournaments, she has been able to maintain her studies by taking online courses and distance learning. Despite the rigors of the international badminton tour, Tai was able to complete her doctoral program on schedule. Tai has been juggling a tight schedule with the Indonesia Open 2022 set to kick off on Tuesday (June 14). Just one day before setting out for Jakarta last week, Tai completed her final oral examination for her dissertation on June 9, reported SET News. As she was not able to attend the graduation ceremony on Monday, a small ceremony was held for Tai in advance last week, complete with cap, gown, and diploma. Tai also recorded a graduation speech in advance which she stated: "Although athletics are very demanding, you must not give up your studies. By increasing your knowledge it will also help your career in sports. You can use a more scientific perspective to solve problems you encounter. When you encounter difficulties, you can cry, you can be sad, but you must never give up. I believe that if you stick to it, you will never have any regrets when looking back. We only have one life, let's work hard together." Chen Yi-liang (陳奕良), director of the Graduate Institute of Sports Training, who was Tai's supervisor for her Master's and PhD studies, was cited by the news agency as saying, "In the past few years of mentoring Tzu-ying, I have found that she is a very ambitious, responsible, self-disciplined, and is good at managing her time. Fortunately, over the past three years, many competitions have been canceled due to the pandemic. Tzu-ying has used this time to actively complete her coursework. Tzu-ying's achievements in technology and academics are entirely based on her own good attittude." Tai (right) holding diploma. (University of Taipei photo) Tai (right) holding diploma. (University of Taipei photo) Tai (third from right) stands with professors during graduation ceremony. (University of Taipei photo) Taiwan's badminton queen earns PhD | Taiwan News | 2022-06-14 12:32:00
Interesting reading. I wonder how her high school pathway differed from more ordinary high school students. She was already travelling to world tournaments at 15 years old. Will commentators refer to her as “Dr Tai” in her matches?
Happy birthday to TTY! What a great birthday present to win the INA open 1000 the day before her birthday! So now she has 4 majors win since the OG. She's now playing much more freely since the loss to CYF in JPN. Kudos to her for keeping the passion and fire going for so long as she turns 28. Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk
So TTY falls short again in the WC today. This time to CYF. So I'm gonna say this again. And I have said it over and over. But TTY's best chance to win the WC was 2017. In 2017, when she ascended to #1, nobody had figured out how to beat her yet. This is kind of like LKY's WC run in 2021, nobody knew how to beat LKY. By the time LKY won the WC, it was too late for other coaches and players to game plan him. Perfect timing for LKY. In 2017, TTY chose to skip the WC and play in the Universaide, despite so many other of her Taiwan teammates, choosing to play in the WC over the Universaide (ie. CTC and so many other Taiwan players chose to play in the WC in 2017, not the Universaide). TTY felt confident she could win the WC in another year - this may have been her biggest mistake, thinking she could win the WC in another year. CYF may have a few more years in her prime, if she can keep healthy and keep her form up. Then you have upcomers like An Se Young, who may get even better in the next few years. And you have Akane Yamaguchi possibly in her prime now. TTY will be 29 years of age next year. As Gillian Clark said, TTY was looking gassed in the 3rd set. But that's the problem with age. 28 years of age is not old, but here is where CYF might have a slight edge, being 4 years younger. In any case, it may get harder and harder for TTY to win a WC or OG, as age works against her. I'm not saying that TTY can't win a WC or OG. It's still possible. But when age works against you, and other WS players rise (like An Se Young), it's probably much harder for TTY to win a WC/OG, than in 2017 when she was so much better than any other WS player, and nobody knew how to beat TTY in 2017.
This is what TTY said about skipping the World Championship: It's true that the WC is held every year (except for Olympic years). But at the same time, TTY would have known LCW never won the WC, despite LCW entering the WC every year that he could, up to that point. And here are the list of Taiwan players that decided to play the WC instead of the Universaide: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/players.aspx?id=4A6A351C-463C-4229-8233-F7459FAD92B5 You can see, practically the entire Taiwan national team opted to play in the WC.
Yeah, the Universiade held in "Taiwan" was politicized and TTY fell for it. She doesn't know how to keep things in proportion - what's The Universiade compared with The World Championships? And it's not as if she has already captured a couple of major titles and can afford to skip one.
That's sad if it's true. The irony is, if TTY had won the WC, she would also have been celebrated as a hero in Taiwan, because I don't think a MS or WS player in Taiwan has won the WC before. And her standing in the badminton world would have gone up if she had won the WC, rather than winning the Universaide.
It’s true. 2016 Olympics the Taiwan Association had issues with personal sponsors causing her equipment issues.
Sad to see her falter yet again in the biggest event of the year, I had some hope after G1. I hope she can persevere and capture that illusive WC gold before she retires! Badminton is a more enjoyable sport to watch with her in it, I hope she can keep having fun with it for a few more years... Spot the Chinese nationalist
Getting more difficult for her to win the world title as she age, speed and reaction time will get slower.
In the 3rd set against CYF at the WC, I think stamina plays a role in TTY's mistakes. When you are tired and you can't catch your breath, you are bound to make more mistakes. In other words, tired = mistakes. This is an advantage of being younger, when you have more stamina. TTY was a complete different player in the 1st set against CYF, when TTY was fresh, versus the 3rd set against CYF, when TTY was just out of stamina. The exception was in the last 8 points of the 3rd set when CYF had like 8 match points, CYF panicked and took timeouts, and had to get medical spray for her knee, and I think CYF gave TTY some time to recuperate and regain some stamina.
If its really her stamina, she should work on it. She is only 28, not old by any means. If intanon and carolina marin can play 3 games, she can too. I think AY and CYF are only 3/4 years younger, there should not be such a stark contrast in stamina.
